Defense ministers from China, Russia and four Central Asian nations agreed to hold joint anti-terrorism drills next year as they gathered Wednesday to discuss regional security, including the threat from Islamic militancy. Armed forces from the six nations will stage the military exercise in Russian territory, near the Ural Mountains in an area abutting Central Asia, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters after the meeting. Air forces and precision-guided weapons would likely be featured he said. The joint exercise, if held, would be the largest staged by the six-nation grouping, known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The group, which got its informal start a decade ago but was formally launched five years ago, was founded to build confidence among the member nations and grapple with militant Islamic groups. ... http://abcnews.go.com

Sales of new homes rose a much larger-than-expected 13.8% in March, the biggest one-month gain since April 1993, but prices fell sharply, a government report showed Wednesday.The pace of new-home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted 1.213 million unit annual rate from a downwardly revised 1.066 million unit rate in February, the Commerce Department said.Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting home sales to rise to a 1.1 million unit pace in March.Despite gains, the new-home sales report showed signs the housing market has slowed from peak levels. The median home price slipped 2.2% from a year earlier to $224,200, the first year-over-year decline since December 2003, the Commerce Department said. Also, the March sales pace was down 7.2% from March 2005....http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2006-04-26-new-homes_x.htm

The new Solomon Islands Prime Minister Snyder Rini, whose election last week triggered widespread rioting in the capital Honiara, has resigned. He announced he was quitting just before MPs were due to vote in a no-confidence motion against him. Mr Rini confidently predicted he would win the vote, but some of his key backers switched sides in recent days. His resignation was greeted with jubilation in Honiara, where people honked car horns and cheered. "People are very excited that Rini has gone [and] are looking forward to getting rid of the old leaders in the old government," 38-year-old farmer, Samson Maneka, told the Associated Press. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4945090.stm

The Pentagon is planning a mass release at Guantánamo Bay, where almost 500 detainees are still being held as part of the "war on terror", it was announced yesterday. About a third - 141 - of the prisoners are to be freed after investigators determined that they can no longer be classified as enemy combatants.The prisoners would be the largest group yet to be freed from the US naval base in Cuba that has been criticised by human rights campaigners and governments across the world. Major Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman, said: "A number of detainees who have been determined to be no longer enemy combatants are in the process of being transferred or released to their home countries."The decision follows a year-long review after a ruling by the US supreme court. Of the roughly 350 who would be left, the US has charged only 10....http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,,1761386,00.html

The Bush administration, facing complaints from border-state lawmakers, is considering scaling back strict passport security requirements for people who infrequently travel between the United States and Canada. The concession may not be enough for lawmakers who want to delay rules requiring passports or other tamper-resistant ID cards for all who enter the United States beginning Jan. 1, 2008. The administration may initially address part of what some in Washington call the ``Aunt Tilly'' problem - occasional visitors to Canadian border communities who might be prevented from returning to the U.S. because they didn't know to bring acceptable ID. The law applies to U.S. citizens and foreign visitors alike. ``We are working on that, we're concerned about that, and the last thing we want to do is discourage traffic,'' Jim Williams, director of a Homeland Security Department program that monitors international travel to the U.S., said in an interview. ``We've got to come up with ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5780575,00.html

Author Dan Brown may be surprised by a new survey on Catholics' view of his best-selling novel and upcoming film The Da Vinci Code— a tale of a murderous Catholic conspiracy to hide that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene.Brown told a New Hampshire audience Sunday that he delights in all the clergy and scholars "debunking" his story of church fathers suppressing "the sacred feminine" in Christianity. Debate, he says, helps spirituality "evolve." But most Catholics view the brouhaha with a big yawn, according to the survey released Tuesday by Catholic Digest, the 70-year-old monthly magazine. Most (73%) say The Da Vinci Code has had "no effect on their faith." And 92% say they don't know of anyone leaving the church after reading the book, says the March 23-27 survey of 443 Catholics, by Yankelovich Inc. Margin of error was ±4.7 percentage points. ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-04-25-davinci-code-catholics_x.htm